Jenny: Forrest, I'm sick.Forrest: What, do you have a cough due to cold?Jenny: I have some kind virus. And the doctors don't, they don't know what it is. And there isn't anything they can do about it.Forrest: You could come home with me. Jenny, you and little Forrest could come stay at my house in Greenbow. I'll take care of you if you're sick.Jenny: Would you marry me, Forrest?Forrest: Okay.

For some reason, ping-pong came very natural to me, so I started playing it all the time. I played ping-pong even when I didn't have anyone to play ping-pong with. The hospital's people said it made me look like a duck in water, whatever that means. Even Lieutenant Dan would come and watch me play. I played ping-pong so much, I even played it in my sleep.

Forrest Gump: [narrating] If I'd a known this was gonna be the last time me and Bubba was gonna talk, I'd a thought of something better to say.Forrest Gump: Hey, Bubba.Bubba: Hey, Forrest. Forrest, why'd this happen?Forrest Gump: You got shot.Forrest: [narrating] Then Bubba said something I won't even forget.Bubba: I wanna go home.Forrest Gump: [narrating] Bubba was my best good friend. And even I know that ain't something you can find just around the corner. Bubba was gonna be a shrimpin' boat captain, but instead he died right there by that river in Vietnam. That's all I have to say about that.

Forrest Gump: Will you marry me? I'd make a good husband, Jenny.Jenny: You would, Forrest.Forrest Gump: But you won't marry me.Jenny: You don't want to marry me.Forrest Gump: Why don't you love me, Jenny? I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is.

Now, when I was a baby, Momma named me after the great Civil War hero, General Nathan Bedford Forrest. She said we was related to him in some way. And, what he did was, he started up this club called the Ku Klux Klan. They'd all dress up in their robes and their bedsheets and act like a bunch of ghosts or spooks or something. They'd even put bedsheets on their horses and ride around. And anyway, that's how I got my name, Forrest Gump. Momma said that the Forrest part was to remind me that sometimes we all do things that, well, just don't make no sense.

I thought I was going back to Vietnam, but instead, they decided the best way for me to fight communists was to play ping-pong. So I was in the Special Services, traveling around the country, cheering up all them wounded veterans and showing them how to play ping-pong. I was so good that some years later the Army decided I should be on the All-American Ping-Pong Team. We were the first Americans to visit the land of China in, like, a million years or something like that, and somebody said that world peace was in our hands. But all I did was play ping-pong. When I got home, I was national celebrity. More famous even than Captain Kangaroo.

Jenny: Do you ever dream, Forrest, about who you're gonna be?Forrest Gump: Who I'm gonna be?Jenny: Yeah.Forrest Gump: Aren't I going to be me?Jenny: Well, you'll always be you, just another kind of you. You know? I want to be famous. I want to be a singer like Joan Baez. I just want to be an empty stage with my guitar, my voice... just me. And I want to reach people on a personal level. I want to be able to say things, just one-to-one.

That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since I run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going. When I got tired, I slept. When I got hungry, I ate. When I had to go... you know... I went.

Lieutenant Daniel Taylor: Now, you listen to me. We all have a destiny. Nothing just happens, it's all part of a plan. I should have died out there with my men! But now, I'm nothing but a goddamned cripple! A legless freak. Look! Look! Look at me! Do you see that? Do you know what it's like not to be able to use your legs?Forrest Gump: Well... Yes, sir, I do.Lieutenant Daniel Taylor: Did you hear what I said?! You cheated me. I had a destiny. I was supposed to die in the field! With honor! That was my destiny! And you cheated me out of it! You understand what I'm saying, Gump?! This wasn't supposed to happen. Not to me. I had a destiny. I was Lieutenant Dan Taylor.Forrest Gump: You still are Lieutenant Dan.

Forrest Gump: [narrating] I remember the bus ride on the first day of school very well.Bus Driver: Are you comin' along?Young Forrest: Momma said not to be taking rides from strangers.Bus Driver: This is the bus to school.Young Forrest: I'm Forrest Gump.Bus Driver: I'm Dorothy Harris.Young Forrest: Well, now we ain't strangers anymore.

Jenny came back and stayed with me. Maybe it was because she had nowhere else to go. Or may be it was because she was so tired, because she went to bed and slept and slept like she hadn't slept in years. It was wonderful having her home. Every day we'd take a walk, and I'd jabber on like a monkey in a tree and she'd listen about ping-pong and shrimpin' boats and Momma makin' a trip to Heaven. I did all the talkin'. Jenny most of the time was real quiet.

After that, shrimpin' was easy. And since people still needed them shrimps for shrimp ****tails and barbecues and all. And since we were the only boat left standing, "Bubba-Gump" shrimp's what they got. We got a whole bunch of boats. Twelve Jenny's, a big ol' warehouse, we even have hats that says "Bubba-Gump" on 'em. "Bubba-Gump Shrimp." It's a household name.

Forrest: Bye-bye, Jenny. They sendin' me to Vietnam. It's this whole other country.Jenny: Listen, you promise me something, okay? Just if you're ever in trouble, don't try to be brave, you just run, okay? Just run away.Forrest: Okay. Jenny, I'll write you all the time.